DT 26738 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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DT 26738 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26738 (Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club

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I have added two new entries to The Mine.

Horses and Riders has been a long time in preparation, but is finally available.  What was the name of Napoleon’s horse?  Which horse survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn?  Those questions, and many others, are all answered.

James Bond Movies gives the actors who played Bond, the Villains and the Bond Girls along with information about the theme music, singers and composers.

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.

Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

Could new readers please read the Welcome post before asking questions about the site.

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Across

1a           Supports a lot of practical details (5,5)
A charade of support garments worn by ladies and a word meaning a lot gives these practical details that you need to get down to

6a           Expression of incredulity disgraced cricketer (2,2)
When the two parts of this expression of incredulity are run together the result is the name of a disgraced Pakistani cricketer

18a         Man getting expression of disapproval after golfer’s last shot can resort to violence (3,3,4,2)
This looks a bit complicated but it gets easier when broken down – the male pronoun is followed by an expression of disapproval and preceded by the last shot that a golfer makes on the green and then finally add a can (of beans, maybe) to get a phrase that means to resort to violence

24a         Very long European film (4)
An adjective meaning very long, often applied to a poem, is created by putting E(uropean) next to a short word for a film

27a         Nevada made corrupt couple first to sin (4,3,3)
An anagram (corrupt) of NEVADA MADE gives the first couple to sin

Down

1d           Evade how one’s admitted to restricted event? (6)
This word meaning to evade could, if split (2,4) be how one is admitted to a restricted event

3d           Employee’s claim with needless fiddling? (7-5)
This slang word for an employee’s claim for expenses is an anagram (fiddling) of WITH NEEDLESS

14d         Sobriquet of Labour leader embracing relationship with gusto (3-7)
Put a rather strange sobriquet for such an ineffective Labour leader (3,2) around (embracing) a family relationship to get an adjective meaning with gusto

17d         Bill Black got to confess about knife crime (8)
Put another word for a restaurant bill (3) and B(lack) inside a verb meaning to confess to get this knife crime

Nothing to do with the answer, but this is one of my all-time favourite tracks by Bill Black’s Combo

ARVE Error: need id and provider

23d         Catastrophe — atmosphere needs lifting (4)
A catastrophe is created by reversing (lifting in a down clue) atmosphere or feeling


The Crossword Club is now open.  Feel free to leave comments.

Please don’t put whole or partial answers or alternative clues in your comment, else they may be censored!


The Quick crossword pun: {peaky} + {knees} = {Pekinese}

64 comments on “DT 26738 (Hints)

  1. After a (for me anyway) difficult Thurs and Fri, felt relieved by doing this in good time. Liked 1a, 1d, and 18a. Thanks to all involved.

  2. A 2* for me today. I found it all quite straightforward. It helped that this morning my brain was in the right gear for recognising & solving anagrams. That gave me a good start & it flowed from there.

  3. Enjoyed 18a and last entry was 19d. Although 3d was a new expression to me the anagram didn’t pose any problem because all interconnected answers were already in. It was a light relief after a heavy going week as alluded to by ‘toadson’. In my copy of the DT 9a was misprinted as being a (9) letter answer whereas in fact it is a 10 letter solution; this does throw you for a few seconds!

    1. Yes, I kept ignoring the obvious anagram for 9a as I assumed it was 9 letters. That’ll teach me to check the grid rather than trust the clue in future!

  4. I don’t know whether my brain has gone into pre-Christmas meltdown, and having read the comments above, I think it might, but it took me a long time to sort out today’s crossword and I might have to give it 3.5 or 4* difficulty when I come to write the review (which incidentally won’t appear until Thurs 29 Dec, as that is the closing date for entries into the competition).

    1. Well that’s a relief, Sue! I thought that it was me… However, I did enjoy how some of the answers unfolded and you [plural] may be amused to know that I couldn’t remember the name of the third Pakistani cricketer as Amir and Butt wouldn’t make any sense… Google!

      1. You have no idea how glad I am to read your comment. What with the cold weather and a long and tiring week, my poor old brain can’t wait for work to finish on Wednesday.

    2. I’d be absolutely delighted if you gave it 4* difficulty – I thought it was a real little piglet!! It has definitely NOT been my best week for crossword solving!

  5. Quite tricky in places this one but overall quite fun. I can imagine the howls of protest on the cricketing reference – in this case I am inclined to agree that this was a bit too niche; cricketing terms and abbreviations sure, references to W.G.Grace and other well known players (e.g. Beefy) OK, but unless you follow the game this will be too much to know and will date very quickly.
    Thanks to BD and to the setter.

  6. Never heard of 3d. At work they were put in a file labelled LIES. This, I was told, stood for Legitimate Incurred Expense Submissions!
    Stuck on just one 16d. Any hints please?

    1. The scene of a mutiny comes from the abbreviation for special (one letter) followed by the facilities (ground and equipment) found at the top of a mine.

  7. Many thanks – never heard of it. You learn something every day!
    Now completed in record time for me.

  8. I thought that this was, although enjoyable, very difficult. I ended up needing the hint for 6a (never heard of him) and that made it possible for me to get 7d – should have managed that one as it was probably one of the least difficult clues. This has taken me a long time as have most of the crosswords this week – either I’m not concentrating (too much else that I ought to be doing) or I’m losing my marbles!! :sad: 9a took me ages – completely thrown by wrong number of letters and anyway have always heard of it being *********ic. I’ve never heard of 3d and missed the anagram indicator. I liked 1 and 13a and 1, 8 and 17d. With thanks to the setter (isn’t it usually Cephas on Saturdays) and to BD.

    1. I don’t think we are losing our marbles – I think it’s just that we have so much other stuff to think about this time of year. It should be the Mysteron this week – there are quite a few anagrams which might mean it’s a Cephas but I am sure it was him last week and I seem to remember something somewhere about him doing a special themed one on Christmas Eve, although my brain is, as Prolixic put it so nicely, so addled that I could well have dreamt that one up :)

  9. Personally, I’ve found this week quite tough going – a real struggle in places.
    This one was slightly easier – much of the bottom half of the puzzle went in very quickly, but I spent much time pondering over the rest of it. 4d and 10a I never would have got were it not for the checking letters. 16d I’d also never heard of, but my answer looks kinda right.
    Just one to go at the moment – 13a – the first two letters are clear and I have all the other checking letters, which prompts two possibilities in my mind, but neither seem to fit the wordplay, so any hints here would be splendid! :)

  10. Good afternoon one and all. I have been away to a very foggy Bucharest and was certainly not tuned in to yesterday’s challenge at all. Do others have this problem? A few days without the crossword and you get out of tune quite quickly. It was good to get today’s done with little hassle – I like the cricket clue – very topical. Overall this presented few problems and once again I will try to win one of the prizes. Thanks for the review and to Cephas I presume.

  11. re 13a – I kicked myself when I got it. You have the first two letters so just work your way through words that mean most severe, austere, unyielding then, remove the first two letters and say D’oh very loudly. Think literature! This is in reply to Tim Cypher!!

    1. Thanks Sue, that’s clear now and was one of the two possibilities I had in mind. The literary connection did flash in my mind earlier, but I dismissed it due to what appeared to be a missing ‘a’ – in hindsight, I should have clung on to that and realised that, in the actual name, it wasn’t needed.
      Many thanks once again, and also to Franco for his reply above! :)

  12. I enjoyed this one immensely. Favourite by a mile was 13 but the rest were well constructed with 6 giving me the giggles.

  13. Hello everyone late arriving today been ‘decking the halls’ so to speak :-) ! Finished this quite early on but didn’t find it at all easy with the top left corner being the last to go in, a three star at least for me today, although I didn’t need the hints to solve I needed the one for 1a for the explaination, thanks Dave, I thought the cricket reference clue was ‘unfair’ as if we women would know that!! As Sue says too much going on at the moment to concentrate, at least that’s my excuse, off now to toot my flute and practice some carols! Back later, oh no sorry won’t be back later the final of Strictly is on tonight, yeeees :-D

    1. Careful Mary – you only just escape the naughty corner with a couple of small words in your comment!! :grin: Hope “other half” is on the mend. Enjoy the dancing – we’re going out for supper to some friends but we will all be watching it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Harry – can’t bear “Miss Piggy”, although I think she’s quite a good dancer, and don’t think Jason stands a hope.

      1. I know Kath, hee hee, I was thinking that I’d get some mulled wine but no one spotted it, well done you :-) , aw poor Chelsea, I didn’t like her at first but I do now, Harry is the best of the three in the final IMHO, enjoy,
        ‘other half’ still pretty poorly, quite a worry!

  14. A very enjoyable puzzle. 1a was favourite and last in, D’oh!
    Thanks to the setter and BD.

    If anyone fancies a bit more cruciverbalism I can recomment the NTSPP by Alchemi. It’s not very hard and has some excellent clues.

  15. Whizzed through this but took me ages to get the last clue 16 d as I’d never heard of it had to Google it to make us I wasn’t making it up

  16. Spent most of the day on this on and off and have one left – 10a – can anyone give me a gentle hint please? I have a word in mind but whether it is also the name of a film director, I have no idea!

    1. If you have a word meaning unproductive, thin etc, then google it with a capital letter and you should find the name of a film director – you will certainly remember the films.

      1. This was the last clue I got and I could have done with the hint thin! Well done CS. I agree with most and say after Thurs and Fri this was a bit of a relief. Day off tomorrow in ront of fire. Whoopee.

    2. 10a – Director of big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India et alia.

      I had never thought that the adjective meant “unproductive” – but it’s in Chambers – so it must be right.

  17. Thank you all – it was the word I had in mind but my Google is being a tad lazy at the moment, so I took the easy option! Found this very difficult and it has taken most of the day on and off. Was totally thrown by the misprint in 9a but got there in the end (by counting the grid!!) needed hints for 1a as was hung up on “supports” = “backs” and couldn’t get my mind round anything else. Lots of good clues but liked 15a & 21a. Oh, 18a was rather fun too – I got it first and then had to write it out and “justify” it – very clever. Definitely 4* difficulty for me and, I thought, a lot trickier than some Saturdays. Thanks to setter for relief from the more mundane Saturday tasks and to BD for the helpful hints and explanations.

  18. Did someone say cake?

    I think it’s getting to the stage when I enjoy the commentary more than the crossword.

    Fave today 13a. Thanks all.

  19. Thanks to the setter & Big Dave for the hints. Enjoyed this one after struggling on Thursday & Friday. Got 3d without realising it was an anagram, doh! Thought 6a was a bit obscure for non cricket followers. Favourite was 15a.

  20. Hello, a late posting because I’ve been out all day. I found this pretty straight forward too. I liked the cricket reference and so 6a was my favourite this week, but not so keen on 4d as a personality.

  21. No, it’s not Cephas today, nor is it next week as someone else has done a special Christmas crossword. However I have compiled special Christmas GK crosswords for the Sunday Telegraph on December 18 and 25, the latter on the website only.

    1. I knew I had seen something about you doing something specially Christmassy somewhere. Today’s GK is a very enjoyable solve Happy Christmas to you and Mrs C.

  22. As expected the arrival of the Aging Ps has cut back somewhat on the solving time so this was completed before they rose from their slumbers this morning. I enjoyed this Saturday outing and didn’t need the hints (but thanks anyway to the setter & to BD.).

    Now if I can get the old buggers full of wine at lunchtime then I might be able to tackle the NTSPP & the Virgilius later on…

      1. I prefer to think of it as planning ahead or application of the 6 Ps as we used to say in my corporate days.

  23. No time to attempt the Saturday puzzle until late last night. This morning my brain is fully of Christmas cheer and not working well and l’ll rely heavily on the hints and tips today.

    carrie

    1. These ‘courts’ found in a building or a house, are constucted from ‘A’ and a synonym for case (think legally!) without its last letter (is incomplete).

    2. 10a – Unproductive old film director

      Unproductive in this sense means without much fat or flesh, and is also the surname of a famous English film director.

      1. Cheers Jezza, I’m always behind all you lot when it comes to doing these puzzles !
        I thought of him but didn’t consider him to be old ( it must mean I’m old too!)

  24. Missed the obvious anagram there although that messes up my answer for 13a. Thought I had that sorted.Getting late perhaps another clue please.

    1. 13a Most severe saint with ‘important’ name (8)

      An adjective meaning most severe is derived from the usual abbreviation for saint followed by the “important” character from the eponymous Oscar Wilde play

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